you are certainly warming up to it with numbers of those willing to do this growing every year and. new york just something to lighten up your friday afternoon that's going to do it for now come back at eight pm for more news an indefinite or views. he has.

a low in the welcome to. russia's foreign policy in two thousand and thirteen what can we expect what about the so-called reset with the united states will international law be even less relevant. to discuss russia's foreign policy in two thousand and thirteen i'm joined by. he is the editor in chief of russian global affairs he is

a senior lecturer in research or international relations at moscow's a university and dimitri bobbitt she is a political analyst with the voice of russia radio station. that means you can jump in anytime you want but do you think two thousand and thirteen holds for russians form. right now it's a very turbulent time does it remain turbulent or yes it will remain turbulent maybe it will be even more terrible in them though fortunately the syrian crisis continues and a year ago everybody predicted also to fall soon immediately now we are well and plus we were told he has to go right ok i find really interesting every time someone like hillary clinton says this person must go some most of the time all the time they go eventually sooner or later we are but that can. take much more time so for russian diplomacy was a very important issue in two thousand and twelve and certainly will remain this

year also i think the very important and quite a troublesome area will be continuation of building up your asian union because it seems to be a real priority for russian leadership but of course we shouldn't underestimate trouble stephen this limited circle of competence not to talk about some other who we expect to join we just heard that the syrian crisis as it was important in the russian foreign policy in russia was severely criticised last year and in this new year for its policy toward syria warranted oh well i think they're out there in the last few months starting changing why didn't i think so i've noticed it is no because for example the brazilian president comes here and she says the chip reshapes russia stubborn position well china has been supporting russia all along. well i think so basically the brics countries are starting to have more and more

dollars about the west and stance on syria and i think the reason is obvious the west was gearing up for a greek no one drama shock knowledge drama in syria they expected you know the good people to chase out the evil dictator ok maybe a few deaths and maybe a few people. the way well good and evil the good people are the people from the east and morning less free syrian army and no one knows who they are but what is my point in the case well it was initially it was syrian national council knowledge syrian national coalition after all never called terrorists mark go ahead tell us want to know in the last year you were right all terrorists are made though they commit terrorist acts i think the tone has changed also because what we have seen is that the western media which has done a very good job of preventing presenting an extremely black and white simplistic cartoonish. good versus bad narrative of what's going on hasn't been able to

conceal the atrocities the sheer bloody atrocities that have been committed by the rebels and they can't hide the true nature of the conflict any longer which is an ethno religious conflict the fact that this revolution has always been a sunni and not just a sunni but they will harvest sunni because there are plenty of sunnis that actually support the government. and this is a sunni sectarian and jihadist jihadists from around the world from the united states japan china as well as a little bit at least yes many from libya they have the senate and it is that against the shall we say the secular sunni population the alloy the christians especially have been terribly persecuted even the through and the kurds even have it's a war of survival for them in many many ways but russia is consistently take an international law position but that doesn't get out into the media very much does it. russian

position is actually very much misunderstood in the west. everybody believes that russia sports. and as many. russian diplomats say no we don't but no one no one believes in fact russian position is very simple it's not about us it's not about syria it's not about the middle east it's about to prevent the leave them or they'll deal even precedent to become a model for future settlement of local conflicts. of couple of months ago when they said that that's was the key core of russian position michael not just a question of the regional conflicts and the regime changes but i would say also and i'm sure you would agree with me also a question of the entire international order and we're talking the basic fundamental principles of the united nations charter so i state sovereignty not

interference in domestic affairs and these of completely vanished from the western government and media lexicon they don't even because it's humanitarian interventions right that's sounds nice right well it's a clever guys the problem is that there is this quarter mia so the west was gearing up for a melodrama with we can't i didn't want a tragedy without an apt one during the whole year to be frank with you i was tormented by western television stations which ask me every two weeks when is russia going to adopt. a new move by the russian government any phrase by a lover all for by his deputies was interpreted as some movement of russia in that direction so well finally it sort of an opposite movement happened and a lot of debris he me obviously revealed a plan which was russian the matter states have and which is much closer to russian view of the situation well there's really any going back six months it's in geneva accords exactly then these stations for saw surprised and they gave their ask me

the same question how do you think it indicates changes in the russian position well like a russian position didn't change during the whole year which is the only one that didn't change. but what also shows their expectation of this what you're saying is the presumption of this quick regime change and of the right to do it and i would say the duty to do it and to do it quickly all over the world they expect the assad government but isn't it really naive to assume that because which is say for example us on just simply leaves this is situation on the ground change i mean if it's a sectarian conflict clearly that's why i believe there is no intervention because actually the initial stance was we do it the proximate as in libya but no even in the west and even the neighboring countries like turkey people understand it's too risky too dangerous finally it will not change anything can disappear

everybody's human being who knows what happens but it will not change situation because those who are behind here they are not behind they're really as you rightly pointed out they are more afraid of those who can come than all of us as dictatorship many are extremely unhappy with him but they see it is a lesser of evil you know i've always when i read western media and watch western television you know they always say russia's last friend in the arab world and what kind of influence does russia have in syria with syria and in the region again because it looks to me it's taking a principled stand here i think it's a lost little overestimated russia's influence in syria and their moment of russian support for syria's are already stated and i kind of the standard why because things didn't want to go according to the western scenario so they must find a scapegoat why is he still there ok probably russia supply him weapons all gave

him my knee i read stories about russia actually sent in cash and printing money for us and i think there is a deeper problem behind it you know already. and now that obama is coming to power with mr brown and as the chief will say we're going to have more draw in the parade well when you have united states more involved in the world but at the distance not saying troops like bush did it by probably keeping people by drones so the problem is that. how accurate are these drones going to be if the west miscalculated in syria i mean we're even in russia we see how big it has a tremendously distorted picture of russian reality you know we human deal it is a way that a point in the new caravan stuff like that so there is no we're there some blessed trust in the united states as the small force which has technical capability to kill someone in yemen or enough to gain a stone or in pakistan thousands of miles. away from american borders how accurate

is they've thinking about the droll sincere a don't believe it's possible because who you will target. in pakistan i can understand it's very damaging for united states but i know whom the whom they try to strike but in syria there's a lot of this experience was sort of chaotic where there was no from playing there so i don't believe that the united states of the bomb administration will be that eager to intervene in any form i'm afraid they're going to kill people on both sides because there are many possible terrorism suspects on their position and i think what you gentlemen are all green here is that never works out the way you expect to go just a slight point my background of the u.s. military veteran of six years i have to say that i actually american drones have been operating over syria syrian air space and have been for well over a year and that's been documented in the western press as

a well as the syrian and the russian and everyone else but the intelligence gathering capability of these and their passing on of this information through this amorphous branded free syrian army. that should not be underestimated for the military but. the necessity of that for many of the advances that we've seen on the rebels particularly in the north and rural areas of the country i would like to come back to a question of does russia have a presence in the middle east i'm afraid it doesn't but i'm pretty sure. relations with all countries and i'll talk to everyone in the region the problem is that this is the revelation of this year not going to be a friend of the united states under the new government and i think it's a travesty when mike keane and graham accused susan rice of misinterpreting what happened the in people i wanted to call their own article in washington paused where they said that we should talk because if we don't talk to him we're not going

to have serious as good friends as believe you are right and then i'm going to be on scene here we're going to go to wherever he goes to after that short break we'll continue our discussion on russian foreign policy stay on. emission free critic ation free transport judges free the maintenance free is free. to tide free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free medio dog r.t. dot com you. could be. gone

under left nothing to live. for precious children. night long lines fraudulent shoulders. leave it's to die. on our to. let me let me i want or don't let me ask you a question from. here on this network is what we're having in the bank we have our knives out. to be very good on this right it's a bad thing never again you're in a situation where being i don't even talk about the name of me. og. oh i. get on sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lang you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

welcome back across the uk i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're talking about

russia's foreign policy gentlemen at the end of last year secretary of state hillary clinton warned about the recent because ation of russia and the post soviet space i want to go through all three of you your reaction to that. you were playing who was a. signatory of state to recruit to because of domestic political reasons it was actually a coalition of ministration and obama had to do it due to situation democratic party. and i must see she was very much disciplined secretary of state she basically fulfilled the policy formulated in the white house but now you know sharing on the fact that qaddafi was murdered when we came he died by here and that's that was actually the position of many in the states and probably along i think you are the most himself but but in the russian issue you know the reset

wasn't really into this idea but she was going off to work on that as obama wanted but no since she leaves office ship would say what she really believed and i was not at all surprised because the hillary clinton comes from ninety nine two years as a politician and had the time that was a true that. being gold so we see the views are very consistent but you know that saying the recently does ation of russia i mean and this i'm left speechless is such a retreat into such false historical analogies such a sheer cold war dog i was shocked i literally shocked he said a little pleased as well because of what that will force russia to do with be the united states but. we might as well speak of the reed

knots of occasion of europe as the e.u. the return to manifest destiny with nafta and the japanese co-prosperity sphere with the asian pacific economic community i mean this is sheer absurdity and. i have socialist tendencies myself but the call the eurasian union and what russia is today the result of unification is so far from the truth in a couple of sentences what is russia doing in its neighborhood this is a very natural in this world the globalized neoliberal fast moving twenty first century world regionalization this is a natural tendency of economic and political defensive tendency we see it occurring all over the world europe is the pioneer after the united states south america mirka sore. the eurasian union is only natural because of the cultural the historical the language the infrastructure. and actually it's largely for security

reasons to the well there's no way as you point out of it russia doesn't want to recreate the soviet union because the soviet union cost russia a law school and i do disagree it would be for the previous speaker because i didn't find anything new in that statement i don't think it was a fall back into cold war because i've heard such statements in the ninety's. a year or so which in this rule basically it's an official same official position of the united states well what does it come from demon i mean is it because it's because russia is a threat to or well as it is and get in line arms from a very simplified version of reality and the simplified version of reality leads to a lot of mistakes for years the united states has been sinking thinking that the source of authoritarianism in all the post sort of country is they are still good legacy take the old people wait you know take the old soviet officials and wait replace them with a new lead. you're going to have

a democracy well we see now with more and more facts revealed about saakashvili that you can break with your soviet boss you can actually destroy three hundred georgian history that sort of connected you could ukraine it is well you know you can destroy all your pasta and still be all storytelling i would add it's russia not playing the role under the putin government not just putin of course he's only one person but the entire russian government that has emerged over the last ten years they're not playing the role that was assigned to them they were supposed to surrender their sovereignty their independence become an appendage to europe in the west and this was supposed to form a a euro site direct bloc which would help rise the counter of china they know they only have ten to fifteen years before they can't interfere as much as they could in the world russia hasn't played that game they've they've they've maintained a semblance not complete and they've been really nice over and so you've been

demonized for doing and then i think. version over it is not only bad for russians eventually in the states because well let's see a chain of disappointments you should go was a disappointment saakashvili was a disappointment why do have all these disappointment ok they say that there are russian agents operating there well i'm afraid the reason is this simplified version of reality these countries have dictators will they roll they don't need to come back to the soviet union to become a third area let's talk about the reset because this is what is on the in the in the news right now my theory is this and agree or disagree with me there was never a reset it was just a way for the united states and russia to start talking again ok that's what the reset has really been about because i don't see how russia has benefited all over the last four years in its relationship with the united states the research was. yes the show by the end of two thousand and eight by the. it was at the worst stage

since may be over there on the rig on time and of course it was completely unacceptable. we should be grateful to me to be a different obama did they brought a relationship back to work a bill level s. for such it wasn't a policy it wasn't actually complicated but to limit the tradeoff. russia and united states identified couple of us where they can. profoundly but the little bit and the result was positive but we said this over reset was two thousand and eight two thousand and twelve because the two countries have to talk to each other they have things they common issues that they have to deal with i would draw a little bit of exception with what you said that there were there was no reset there was a limited reset and it was a tit for tat trade for deals and out of it the united states got russian cooperation on afghanistan. a limited form of at least

dialogue on iran and north korea what the united. russia got out of this deal was the united states and the west stopped direct coverts you would call it the medic on conventional warfare as the united states military manual calls it interference in the countries of the near abroad the former soviet union that the color revolutions in georgia and ukraine which have fallen of their own accord in kurdistan as well what do you think that's a fair trade off i mean they failed a. lot mail but the fear of the u.s. could have been pumping much more into these countries economically militarily politically in order to support them they backed off that after the end of the bush years i think that was the real trade off of the reset but i think that's about the end. well i think from the american side it reminds me all day long and we're told. it was organized by

a pragmatist by nixon and it was completely destroyed jimmy carter who was an ideologue. in the united states france and falls over russia you can on divide them by party lines. democrats are not pro russian oil and i russian republics are not for arsenal and russia the real dividing line is between pragmatists and ideologues russia is not a threat to them that the states russian elite wants to be friends with the united states i would say almost desperately. and you know reset was a prick made it seems russia is not a frat threat why waste so much money trying to limit its potential and basically it's coming to an end because you know wait a year as obama's administration it was getting more and more ideological i think the war in the via was ideal what you call it didn't bring any fruit to assume that this needs obviously there is even there is going to be probably one more hostile to their resume in egypt so there's going to be more that i wanted to colleagues

and you know you. disagree completely i think russia is a huge threat to the united states not to the united states or the united states citizens security wise secure now it's you curiosus no threat to the united states it's a threat to the uni polar vision of the western uni polar vision of the world it's a threat to us in germany it's a threat to the us being able to exert political military economic influence in different areas of the world that's the threat that russia presents to the united states and russia is in that case the biggest threat to the united states in the world china has the capability but not the political will it's part of their nature as an elite they're all engineers within a pullet bureau they don't they don't they don't have that aggressive combative attitude russia has some semblance of the ability. increasing after having faded but they have the political will where no other country in the world has been

reading my notes multi-polar world if you think russia is being vindicated slowly but surely that that's the path that the world should take because when you look at major foreign policy initiatives the united states they're always backfiring there's not one exception of a success in the last ten years. my view on international development is actually much more gloomy both for russia and for the united states because we we can talk about hegemony which is all were basically we can talk about multi-polar a to which you know it's accepted by everybody including co bob in the station and no you use the united nations when you need them you don't need it you do but steal it you use it you you without. russian veto. in about libya i would say anybody would try because iraq everybody learns lessons but anyway it doesn't matter because developing this absolutely unpredictable. yes exactly united states.

gets more of damage because united states is much more active but even for russia i think the major major point to you we can see. articles oh it's absolutely impossible to understand what's happening let's be cautious and that there's he blamed states for you know want to give you the last word in the program how are we going to see mr obama and mr putin meet after all of the things that are said about putin well i think that on the russian side there will still be a hand outstretched because as i told you the russian elite wants to east wants to be friends with the americans the problem is that it was not accepted back in the ninety's and even now and the whole conflict inside the russian and what we see now in the media you know with ace and time again it's good deals and other things this is basically a fight of two groups within the russian elite one group says do everything that

they want the other one says fascinating discussion thank you very much all right we have run out of time on i thank my guests here in the studio and thank the viewer for watching us here r.t.c. next time and remember. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a dollar. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot of money comes from you sir are a fool you know what kind of smiling terrorist cells in your neighborhood all want

to give us aid to feature is on the on the liberal and the christian religions can secure beliefs about it's. going to suffer any of the structures from what you and i should care about because they're a profit driven industry that sells a sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm not me martin and we're going to break that.